What to Watch This Week: July 8 to 13

From a new decade up for discussion to the return of a Laguna alum, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

From a new decade up for discussion to the return of a Laguna alum, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

1. The 2000s – Sunday, July 8, 6 p.m. & 9 p.m., CNN | Series Premiere

CNN has already covered the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. So, well, you know what comes next. Over seven episodes, this mini-docuseries will delve into political and cultural milestones?like the iPhone, the war on terror an d?the global financial crisis, with lots of expert/celebrity interviews to put those happenings in context.

2. Very Cavallari – Sunday, July 8, 7 p.m. & 10 p.m., E! | Series Premiere

It’s been nearly a decade since we bid farewell to the cast of a little series known as The Hills… you know, the one that changed the face of reality television and gave us the ignominious likes of Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt, Lauren Conrad, Brody Jenner and Kristin Cavallari?

And while lovers of reality TV are still holding out hope that a reunion show of sorts could potentially happen down the road, for now it seems like we’ll have to be content with talk-show appearances and individual spinoffs. One such offering, featuring the aforementioned Cavallari, debuts this week.

Though she may have been the consummate mean girl during the show’s inaugural run, a lot has changed in eight years. Now, the 31-year-old media personality and mother of three is ready to highlight a new side of herself by opening up to the cameras once again.

3. Sharp Objects – Sunday, July 8, 8 p.m. & 11 p.m., HBO Canada | Series Premiere

Early in her career, Amy Adams did a lot of work in television… and five Oscar nominations later, she’s returning to the medium. ?In Sharp Objects, the star of such films as Arrival, American Hustle and Enchanted portrays Camille Preaker,? a troubled reporter who’s sent back to her Missouri hometown to probe the grisly fate of two young girls. As she digs into the case, while also reconnecting with the people responsible for her own demons, Camille finds herself relating to the girls she’s investigating. They, like her, were enveloped by the darkness lurking below the surface of Wind Gap.

Based on the acclaimed novel by Gone Girl‘s Gillian Flynn, the cast also features Patricia Clarkson as Camille’s twisted socialite mother, Elizabeth Perkins as the town’s day-drinking gossip and Chris Messina—who played Adams’ husband in Julie & Julia—as a detective who partners up with our tortured yet determined hero.?

Directed in Sharp Objects by Canadian Jean-Marc Vallée, who did Emmy-winning work for HBO on Big Little Lies, Adams also serves as an executive producer on the show.

4. I’m Dying Up Here – Sunday, July 8, 9 p.m., TMN1 | Season Finale

Producer Jim Carrey’s acclaimed series about the explosion of the standup scene in 1970s Los Angeles wraps its second season tonight. Will Goldie, Cassie, Bill et al. be called back for an encore (i.e. a third season)? Stay tuned!

5. Floribama Shore – Monday, July 9, 7 p.m. & Midnight, MTV Canada | Season Premiere

What happens when you take a group? of millennials, give them an unlimited bar tab, take away their beloved smartphones and make them live in a house together? Well, as we witnessed when this Jersey Shore reimagining debuted last November, plenty of tears, debauchery and secret calls from an alligator phone ensue. Or was that a crocodile phone? Either way, you get the picture.

Given the show’s massive ?success, the network is? doubling down with a? 14-episode second season ?that kicks off this week. All? eight original cast members are ?back to soak up the sun in? Panama City Beach, where? yet another epic spring break is raging.

6. Outdaughtered – Tuesday, July 10, 5 p.m. & 8:10 p.m., TLC | Season Premiere

When you’re already parents to quints and a seven-year-old, a pregnancy scare is the last thing you need. Yet that’s exactly the situation Adam and Danielle Busby find themselves in when the third season of their series debuts this week.

7. No Passport Required – Tuesday, July 10, 6 p.m. & Midnight, WTVS; 9 p.m., KCTS | Series Premiere

The public appetite for food shows just keeps growing. Case in point: this incoming series starring Marcus Samuelsson, an Ethopia-born, Sweden-raised chef who has been on the culinary-reality circuit for years thanks to a win on Top Chef Masters and various appearances on other Food network programs.

We’ll get to know this popular foodie a little more intimately with No Passport Required, as it features Samuelsson travelling across America to spotlight cuisines from immigrant communities, showcasing a wide variety of flavours without ever leaving the country.

8. TKO: Total Knock Out – Wednesday, July 11, 8 p.m., CBS | Series Premiere

Hosting a TV game show was once seen as the last stop before obscurity in a Hollywood career on the way out, but no more. Now that A-listers like Alec Baldwin (Match Game), Mike Myers (The Gong Show) and Jamie Foxx (Beat Shazam) have added “game show host” to their résumés, any stigma that may have existed has long since evaporated.

Joining this illustrious group is Kevin Hart, a familiar face on the big screen who’s decided to dip his toe into television by making his hosting debut on TKO: ?Total Knock Out, a new obstacle-course competition show from Mark Burnett, who’s brought us such series as Survivor, The Voice and The Celebrity Apprentice.

TKO follows ordinary folks as they attempt to navigate a daunting obstacle course; at the same time, the contestant’s opponents will man battle stations along the way, firing projectiles in order to try to slow that person down. Finally, each episode’s top two players will face off, with a hefty cash prize hanging in the balance.

9. Harlots – Thursday, July 12, 6 p.m. & 9 p.m., Super Channel Fuse | Season Premiere

Liv Tyler, like many movie stars before her, made the jump to TV a few years back, taking a series-regular role on HBO’s The Leftovers. And just as with Matthew McConaughey, Rachel McAdams, etc. before her, it took some top-notch writing to draw her away from the silver screen.

No doubt, that’s the reason she’s chosen to stay on TV and take her talents to the second season of ?this acclaimed period drama, which, in case you haven’t seen it, stars Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Samantha Morton (Minority Report) and Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey) as rival prostitutes struggling to make their way in 18th-century London. Tyler will play a scheming courtier, Lady Isabella Fitzwilliam.

10. Marlon – Thursday, July 12, 9 p.m. & 9:30 p.m., NBC | Season Finale

Since NBC insists on airing its midseason sitcoms two episodes at a time, it doesn’t take long for them to blow through a season, which ?is how Marlon, which only returned in mid-June, is already wrapping up its second season.

In the first of this week’s two instalments, Marlon becomes disgruntled that the career day at Zack’s school only focuses on “traditional” occupations; and so, he decides to speak to his son’s class about considering more eccentric career paths. The result? Well, Marlon ends up having to do some backpedalling.

The next episode starts out on a slightly dark note, with Marlon attending the funeral of his barber, but ?it ultimately provides a celebratory conclusion to the season when Marlon is inspired to throw himself a “funeral party” for his 43rd birthday, where all of the guests are invited to say a few words about the dearly not-yet-departed. During the course of the speeches, however, Marlon notices a common thread—their stories all involve jokes he’s made at the expense of others. Has he been too harsh on his friends?